DDoS attacks

DDoS attacks come in three basic flavors: network-layer, application-layer and a hybrid of the two. This is a somewhat simplistic view but when you look at the strategy for taking someone down via DDoS, the two primary vehicles are either exhaustion of available network bandwidth or the overwhelming of back-end processing power (which can be directed either at the server system itself or the applications residing on them). The most efficient approach to take down a target will depend on the target itself. This is why it is important for every company to consider all of the assets that could become targets when designing anti-DDoS protection. (more…)

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks have been around for decades and have been increasing in popularity due to the relative ease in carrying one out. Traditionally, the purpose of these attacks has been to make a site or service unavailable to its intended users for some duration via either flood-type attacks or application-layer attacks (which are smaller, but just as effective) that overwhelm the target’s network or systems. (more…)

What would happen if you combined Moore’s law with Darwin’s Theory of Evolution and applied them to DDoS attacks? Unfortunately, modern DDoS attacks seem to embody this idea perfectly as both the frequency and complexity of these attacks have become truly staggering in just a short amount of time.